


albatross

by sangi



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-04-19
Updated: 2008-04-19
Packaged: 2018-03-13 16:19:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3388250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sangi/pseuds/sangi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When it rains, his scar aches. It is raining when Zuko is banished.</p>
            </blockquote>





	albatross

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted in 2008, posted here again for archival purposes.

When it rains, his scar aches.

 

It is raining when Zuko is banished.

 

 

* * *

 

The dawn slowly breaks over the horizon and Zuko shakes his head softly, wondering where the past has gone and where the future will be, and on revenge and honor and duty.   


 

“Zuko?” a voice calls from the distance, on the far side of the ship. The boy turns and the light catches on his face, leaving shadows in place of the light.

 

* * *

 

“Turn the ship south,” Zuko says, his eyes on the map, places that are not _home,_ focused on the tribal home of waterbending.

 

Iroh’s eyes are half-lidded (with disappointment? worry? regret?) as he watches his nephew head to a place that has already been ravaged by war.

 

_Revenge will not make you happy._ This the Dragon knows.

 

* * *

 

“Tomorrow,” says Iroh to Zuko, resting a hand on his shoulder (it is absently shrugged off), “is a new day.”

 

Zuko’s anger is blind. “The Avatar escaped,” he mutters. “It will not happen again.”

 

When all is said and done, he is not good enough. Never good enough.

 

* * *

 

It is not the loud ones you watch out for. It is the quiet ones, the ones in the shadows who are nothing more than they seem and everything that they are not.

 

Iroh, the infamous Dragon of the West, drinks jasmine tea and plays Pai-Sho, hidden in the overbearing shadows of his now-Fire-Lord brother and banished, yet strangely loyal, nephew. What does that make him?

 

Zuko is the loud one, the one who is forever in the light - no matter how much he wants to rise to a forgotten, tarnished glory… what does that make _him_?

 

* * *

 

It is raining when he captures the Avatar again.

 

_Revenge will not make you happy,_ Iroh thinks, as he watches weary gray eyes close.

 

_Revenge will not make any of us happy,_ Iroh thinks, as he watches his nephew be accepted back into the royal family.

 

That night, Iroh sets the Avatar free.

 

* * *

 

Gray eyes watch warily as the old man unlocks the dank, dark cell and hands the Avatar his glider.

 

The boy wastes no time in moving away, but… “Why?” Aang asks, his voice barely even a whisper.

 

Iroh smiles gently, looking nothing like the man he once was. His smile is a strangely serious smile, pseudo-political to the bone. “Because you are the only hope for this world.”

 

The Avatar disappears into the night.

 

* * *

 

“The Avatar has escaped,” Zuko mutters again. “I will find him.” His voice cracks a bit. “I _must_ find him.”

 

Iroh shakes his head knowingly.

 

“Revenge,” he advises the vulnerable boy, “will be the death of you.”

 


End file.
